A NI mum is highlighting the issues surrounding a language disorder after her son was diagnosed.
East Belfast mother-of-four Sue McBride is currently studying a Masters in Autism and Neurodevelopmental Conditions.
Two of Sue's children have special educational needs and on Friday, she brought together a range of leading health and educational professionals, departmental representatives and the Children’s Commissioner of Northern Ireland to raise awareness of and issues surrounding developmental language disorder (DLD).
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Her son Corey (10) was diagnosed with DLD when he was in Primary Five.
The event took place on Friday October 14, which is DLD Awareness Day, supported by Thornfield House School, a school in Newtownabbey where 40% of the children have this diagnosis.
Corey attends the school which is a regional specialist in Speech Language and Communication Needs (SLCN).
Sue told Be: "Corey is my inspiration to help raise awareness for International DLD Day.
"I hadn't heard of it until Corey got his diagnosis. He had been going to speech and language from when he was around 2 years of age and then he was discharged whenever he was in Primary Three.
"Whenever Covid came and we were home-schooling him, we knew something was just not quite right with his understanding with his language so he was reassessed and at that point was given the diagnosis.
"With Corey, he would have a word-finding difficulty. He finds it really hard to remember names, even my mum and dad, he can't remember their names. He struggles to remember names of friends, can struggle with his attention, he has difficulties with reading, writing and spelling.
"He's got working memory difficulties and they interlink with each other.
"Corey already had a full-time classroom assistant and was in mainstream school and the school staff were absolutely fantastic."
Sue said Corey then met the criteria to move to Thornfield House which specialises in children who have DLD.
The mum-of-four added: "It was a really tough decision to take him out of his comfort school...
"He's done really well and his confidence has really improved and he has improved with his reading and that is because all of the kids he is in a class with, they all share the same difficulties. Everybody here has speech, language and communication difficulties. They are all the same.
"I wanted to raise awareness and link bodies together to show that parental engagement is out there, the Department of Education and Education Authority are listening to parents."
Attendees at the DLD Day event at Thornfield House School included Louise Creighton, Acting VP/Senco and Brid Tate, Clinical SLT Lead of Thornfield House School; staff from the Education Authority and Department of Education; Koulla Yiasouma, Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People; and Ruth Sedgewick, Head of RCSLT NI (Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT), the professional body for speech and language therapists in the UK.
Mrs McBride, who also works for SENsations which provides independent education support services for children and young people, aims to draw attention 'to a shortage in provisions and more-so a lack of understanding'.
She said: “I wanted to create an event which alongside raising awareness, brought together a range of professionals who are actively listening to parents and the concerns we have. They are in the position to take this forward and further develop services and training which will benefit our education staff, parents and children and young people.”
She added: “Over 10% of children have speech, language, and communication needs, 7.58% of children (which equates to two in every class of thirty) start school with DLD. A further 2.34% of children start school with a language disorder linked to or co-occurring with another condition. This number increases in disadvantaged areas, where it is estimated 50% of school-aged children have a speech, language and communication need.
“81% of children with emotional and behavioural disorders also have unidentified language difficulties and 23% of school pupils in NI have Special Educational Needs with SLCN are among the most reported SEN for all children, and the most common SEN for children with a statement.
“66% of pupils at risk of exclusion from school were found to have speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) – some studies of excluded boys have found this to be higher.
“Statistics also show that 80% of young, unemployed men have an unidentified SLCN. These harrowing figures tell us that widespread action is needed to enable professionals over a range of disciplines to further support these children and their families for the sake of their education and their future lives.
“I know from speaking to a wide range of educational and health professionals that the interest and passion are there among our children’s authorities to address and work with DLD and hope that our event will mark the beginning of some major beneficial changes.”
Raising Awareness of DLD is an international event promoted by RADLD. It says that those with DLD are also six times more likely to suffer from anxiety and three times more likely to have clinical depression.
Sue added: “If I can ask for one outcome of us all being gathered for this event, it’s that we continue to work together and that our professionals are educated on DLD, its presentation and how it can impact the child and young person from an educational, emotional, and future outcome point of view..."
Head of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists NI, Ruth Sedgewick said: “More awareness of developmental language disorder is urgently needed to ensure that early identification is achieved, and children receive timely support for their needs. This has come into sharper focus after attending the event today at Thornfield House School to mark DLD awareness day.
“Speech and language therapy is among the most required support for children with DLD. Our members teach strategies to the child and those around them to help reduce the impact of their communication difficulties and ultimately support them to access education and social activities.
“It this reason why we call upon the Departments of Health and Education to work together and commission more SLT training places to ensure that all those living with a speech, language and communication difficulty have appropriate access to essential intervention.”
Mrs Creighton, Acting VP/SENCo of Thornfield House added: "Thornfield are very proud of our children who present with DLD. The children are learning to live and grow with DLD through the use of supportive strategies to help them achieve their potential going into their future."
Speaking to Be, she added: "I would like to thank all of the professionals for coming to Thornfield and raising awareness of this very common but relatively unknown disorder. We are delighted that we can be advocates for DLD and provide a place of security for these children to come and be the same as everyone else, and not feel that they are different."
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